Paris is always worth a trip and besides the many museums and galleries we picked five location that bring you artistic inspiration from another time. Visit theses former studios and residences by grand artists and not only admire the arts but get inspired for your own work and living.
The Bourdelle Museum
This ensemble of 19th-century ateliers once the home of sculptor Antoine Bourdelle brings back the memories of the artist’s life and work. The sculpting studio remains as it was, with its old parquet and a high glass roof that let the light pour in. There’s a special intimacy about this atelier, surrounded by a beautiful garden where you will find more sculptures, in bronze.
Musée Bourdelle, 18, rue Antoine-Bourdelle, 75015 Paris. www.bourdelle.paris.fr
Open daily except Monday.
Meudon, a little town about 12 km south west of Paris was a popular place for artists who wanted tranquillity and greenery outside of town in the hills of Meudon. Auguste Rodin `s estate overlooking the Seine was renovated using period photographs in 1997. These archives made it possible to reconstitute the artist’s living and working space because, while Rodin went to his Parisian ateliers every day, it was in Meudon that the most intimate part of his work took shape.
Musée Rodin, 19, avenue Auguste-Rodin, 92190 Meudon. www.musee-rodin.fr
Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons from 1pm to 6pm.
The Gustave Moreau Museum
This pretty townhouse in the 9thwas where Gustave Moreau himself created the museum where most of his paintings would be kept. Set in a museum that remains unchanged since its opening in 1903, the collections comprise 25,000 works.
It feels like a trip back in time witnessing the artist`s. daily life and work.
Musée Gustave Moreau, 14, rue de La-Rochefoucauld, 75009 Paris. www.musee-moreau.fr
Open daily except Tuesday.
Jean Arp’s and Sophie Taeuber’s Atelier
The Arp foundation houses by the artists Jean Arp and his wife Sophie Taeuber had been frequented by the artistic elite at the time. The house from the 30ies was built to plans drawn up by Sophie Taeuber herself and is one of the rare ateliers to survive exactly as it was when its occupants passed away. You can enter into an intimate world in which all notions of time are erased. In addition to a hundred or so plasters on show inside the home-atelier, monumental sculptures by Jean Arp decorate the garden.
Fondation Arp, 21, rue des Châtaigniers, 92140 Clamart. www.fondationarp.org
Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 2pm to 6pm.
Atelier Brancusi-Centre Georges Pompidou
The sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s Paris atelier was transported from the nondescript Impasse Ronsin to the Centre Pompidou by Renzo Piano in 1997 – It features a unique collection of 137 sculptures, 87 pedestals, 41 drawings, 2 paintings and more than 1,600 photographic glass plates and original photos by the artist.
